RSS Feed

‘Albums’ Category

  1. Young Wonder – Show Your Teeth EP

    June 5, 2013 by Steph

    young-wonder-show-your-teeth-e1367840003873

    Young Wonder’s EP Show Your Teeth released on May 6th, has been the object of my aural obsession for the last two weeks. In particular, two of the tracks have been on repeat–“Time” feat. Sacred Animals (another artist that I love) and “To You.”

    First, let me ask you–how often do you fully experience music? Not just listen, but find the music so visceral that you feel it pulsating? Young Wonder has the magical ability to sync all of the senses and envelop you in the beats and sweeping melody. It’s a sensory experience. (more…)

    Category Albums | Tags: ,,,, | Comments Off on Young Wonder – Show Your Teeth EP

  2. HEAR THIS: Summer Camp’s “Always”

    May 31, 2012 by Steph

    I’ve lately been a fan of Summer Camp, touting recent singles “I Want You” and “Better Off Without You” from their full-length from last fall Welcome to Condale. They have an EP coming out on July 10th in North America called Always on Apricot Recording Company/ Moshi Moshi Records.

    The first track on the EP and the first single “Life” is sexy, but “Always” is uninspired and leaves me feeling flat. I’m not sure either really live up to the potential of Welcome to Condale, but maybe they need to grow on me. What do you think?

    Always EP – tracklisting
    1.  Life – Listen on SoundCloud

    2.  Always

    3.  City
    4.  Hunt
    5.  Outside

    Category Albums | Tags: ,,, | Comments Off on HEAR THIS: Summer Camp’s “Always”

  3. HEAR THIS: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ Here

    May 29, 2012 by Steph

    I listened to a rad segment on NPR this morning about Alex Ebert and his band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. I had no idea that the hippie used to be an addict. Anyway, their new album Here is out today. You can give it a full listen on NPR here:

    Listen to the full album here.

    They also just launched this website which looks fun… I will have to play with it later.

    Category Albums | Tags: ,,, | Comments Off on HEAR THIS: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ Here

  4. HEAR THIS: Reptar’s Full Album Body Faucet

    April 25, 2012 by Steph

     

    Reptar’s new record Body Faucet will be out on May 1st via Vagrant Records, but you can hear the whole thing right here. These guys are a riot live–I saw them a few months ago in Los Angeles. The record is catchy as hell and it wouldn’t surprise me if “Sebastian” turns into the Summer 2012 “Pumped Up Kicks” phenomenon. Listen now while it’s still a voluntary decision and you can say, “I knew them when…”

    @reptarathens
    facebook.com/reptarmusic

    Category Albums, News | Tags: ,,,, | Comments Off on HEAR THIS: Reptar’s Full Album Body Faucet

  5. HEAR THIS: Said the Whale – Little Mountain

    March 7, 2012 by Steph

    LOVE this band and their full album is streaming on Soundcloud. Listen below.

     

     

    Category Albums | Tags: ,,, | Comments Off on HEAR THIS: Said the Whale – Little Mountain

  6. Favorite Albums of 2011

    December 16, 2011 by Steph

    1.  Strange Mercy – St. Vincent (4AD)
    2.  Civilian – Wye Oak (Merge)
    3. Nightlife – Phantogram (Indica Records/Fontana North)
    4. Codes and Keys – Death Cab for Cutie (Atlantic)
    5. This is Where We Are – Seryn (Velvet Blue Music / Spune)
    6.   BBDLP1 – Big Black Delta (Coming Home Records)

    7. Paradise – Slow Club (Moshi Moshi)
    8. Dig Up the Dead – Mansions (Burning House)
    9.   Blue Suicide – Coma Cinema (Wonder Beard Tapes / Fork and Spoon)
    10. Tamer Animals – Other Lives (TBD Records)

    Category Albums | Tags: | Comments Off on Favorite Albums of 2011

  7. Slow Club’s Sophomore Album Paradise

    September 19, 2011 by Steph

    http://bighassle.com/slowclub/slowclub_paradise_hires.jpgSlow Club’s debut album Yeah, So is one of my top five favorite albums of 2010. The follow-up Paradise had a lot to prove. This album isn’t claiming to bring you to a “state of bliss,” as the name might suggest, but conjures mixed feelings about themes of love, loss, heartbreak, and occasionally sex.

    “I think we both wanted to move away from our obsessions on the first album, and look more at our families, and how the loss of someone you love can affect you,” says co-songwriter and guitarist Charles Watson, before adding: “but we do still end up coming back to love and heartbreak, we can’t help it.”

    “So, death and shagging pretty much sum this album up,” says Rebecca Taylor, the duo’s other half. “Yeah,” agrees Charles sardonically, “cocks, fannies and death. That’s our thing.”

    (more…)

    Category Albums | Tags: ,,,, | Comments Off on Slow Club’s Sophomore Album Paradise

  8. Botany’s Feeling Today EP out August 16

    August 2, 2011 by Steph

    “Botany’s debut Feeling Today explores the cosmic nexus of shimmering psychedelia, blissed-out pop, and instrumental hip-hop, as he turns recycled sounds into something thoroughly modern.”

    Adding on to my love for music from Texas is Botany, calling home “somewhere between Denton and Austin.” I’ve been obsessed with “Feeling Today” by Botany (aka Spencer Stephenson) for almost a year and now the containing EP will finally be released on August 16th and doesn’t disappoint. The Feeling Today EP slices together noise samples into a beautiful amalgamation. Each sound trickles together and blends like similar shades of watercolor. “Feeling Today” feels like morning light on an empty city street. It gives a sense of brightness. In its simplicity, Botany is intensely beautiful and deeply personal.

    MP3 of “Feeling Today”

    MP3 of “Waterparker”

    Category Albums, Tracks | Tags: ,,, | Comments Off on Botany’s Feeling Today EP out August 16

  9. Oax album The Distance

    July 26, 2011 by J-Man

    If you’ve ever read any of my reviews, you know that I have a special place in my heart for albums that are real. I like albums that are more human and less computer. I like real drums, as opposed to drum machines. When my editor-in-chief sent me a track off of This Distance, the new EP from Oax, it hit me right in that “this is real” heart place.

    I would even venture as far as to call this EP raw, and I would mean it in the most positive way possible. The guitars feedback. The cymbal hits aren’t uniform. You can hear that someone is playing the music you are listening to, and that someone is Angelini Giorgio. Aside from the closer on the EP, ‘Sutures’, everything on the album was written and played by Giorgio.

    On my first listen through, this album made me want to drive. I wanted to feel wind, and watch mountains and hills pass by. I wanted to cruise down Highway 1 and listen to this and remember good times and bad times. Then I read the story behind the album and understood why.

    Angelini had been on a hiatus from music, after leaving The Rosebuds and going back to school. Then he went through a hard breakup. Then he sat down and wrote music, by himself. This EP is the result of an emotional dam breaking. I listened to the album a second time and I could feel the lyrics. I empathized with the man singing about the sins he had committed, and the sins committed against him, and the culmination of all these sins and how they make up the lives that we lead.

    What I’m trying to tell you is that this music is good. It is really good.

    Mp3 “Liar, Cheater, Jerk”

    Category Albums, Tracks | Tags: ,, | Comments Off on Oax album The Distance

Older Entries
Newer Entries